The Sounds of Simon

Music legend Paul Simon played DAR Constitution Hall in DC last week. Near the end of the show, after a rousing version of “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” (a highlight from the stellar 1986 album “Graceland”), Simon launched into another tune from that record, “Gumboots.”

Only Simon, 69, missed the cue.

A guy in the front row called out the first lines to jog Simon. The master said, “Well, why don’t you come up and sing it?”

So another Paul – a lawyer named Paul Fournier – got his moment in the spotlight, in all his buttoned-down-blue-shirt splendor. Fournier delivered a dead-on “near perfect” rendition of “Gumboots,” according to the Washington Post.

Simon apparently has a practice of inviting fans on stage to sing or play with him, reports the Post’s Reliable Source. In Toronto, he met a woman who said she learned to play the guitar by practicing Simon’s “Duncan,” so he asked her to join him on stage.

Back to Fournier – he practices patent law with Drinker, Biddle & Reath in the District. He told the Post the chance to harmonize with Simon was “an amazing experience.”